The Bannock flows eastward and enters the River Forth to the east of Stirling, close to the site of the Battle of Bannockburn (1314), about 7.58 miles (12.20 km) from its source.

The upper reaches of the Bannock are in peat bog on a base of volcanic rocks, mainly basalt, of Carboniferous age.

In the Craigend area and Touchadam Quarry the lower limestone is exposed on both sides of the burn, and in its bed, and was mined as described below.

Below that point the Bannock traverses mainly sedimentary bedrock (although the Stirling Sill lies below, at great depth, throughout its lower course), and appears at the surface near the site of Beaton's Mill, with varying cover of sediments, including sand, gravel, tills and clays.

[6] Above North Third reservoir, the exposed limestone was locally quarried and processed in primitive limekilns on a very small scale.

The nearby quarries of relatively modern origin are in the quartz-dolerite of the Stirling Sill, which lies above the Murrayshall Limestone, and have no connection with the lime workings.

The Touchadam Smithy, a blacksmiths, was located between the Craigend and Murrayshall sites, and doubtless was involved in providing sharp tools for the miners.

The right bank of the burn at this point is basically mine waste, and contains many fossils of the several types of giant ferns which eventually formed the coal.

The Coal Authority Interactive Map[7] shows three mine shafts on the south bank across the burn near, and downstream from, Beaton's Mill.

An area known to have been mined is shown as extending NNW towards Whins of Milton village and must have passed under the burn.

There are also three adit mines shown further downstream, again on the right bank, one opposite the saw mill, and the other two some way below the modern Bannockburn bridge in what is now a public park.

Several coal seams must have been exposed in the bed or banks of the burn, but all traces have been obscured by later developments such as the mills in that area.

Starting at the source and progressing downstream, there is a bridge on the mostly single track road at NS730885, which replaces the ford and footbridge which served up till the late 1960s.

A significant upper tributary, the King's Yett Burn, on the same road, also had its ford and footbridge, NS739891, replaced by a proper bridge.

In the upper part of the Bannock valley there is a reservoir at North Third, which supplies water to the petrochemical complex at Grangemouth.

The old Ordnance Survey maps,[9] from which the following grid references are derived, are the best source of information about the mills and the arrangements for their water supply.

Immediately downstream, at NS806900, another weir fed a lade on the right bank, no longer visible, supplied a fairly large woollen carpet factory just above the old bridge, NS806904.

However, a substantial weir at NS808904, between the old and new bridges, diverted water into a left bank weir, which also passed through the park, on its northern edge and ran some distance, past Millhall, joined the Pelstream Burn at NS810923, and then to the Kerse Mills NS813924, and from there to rejoin the Bannock Burn at NS815925, near Muirton Farm NS814926, lost beneath a superstore.

This part of the Bannock Burn, in the low-lying Carse land, is the region where the Battle of Bannockburn is now believed to have happened.

Turning now to the tributaries, the Canglour Burn, via an adjacent weir, powered an early turbine, said to still exist, at Millholm (later, Milnholm) NS784876.

Apart from its potential for fishing, this dam has two outlets, a simple weir diverted overflow down what is now called the Sauchie Burn, while a controllable sluice, NS 782899, at a lower level fed the lade to a sawmill at NS785899, near Cultenhove Farm.

Nowadays there is superficially little sign of either the industries (lime and mills) or the battles which were historically significant, and the banks of the Bannock Burn, for most of its length, are quiet and peaceful.